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Water Bails calling.



indeed, even refers to it. Prof. Alfred Newton in his ‘ Dictionary of

Birds’ says: “Besides this” (its sudden, loud, harsh cry), “which

is peculiar to the cock bird, it has a croaking call that is frog-like.”

Heard at a little distance this breeding call would well convey that

impression ; but here we are too close to the birds, for as it gets dark

they come right up into the garden (the stream runs through the

garden) so that one can hear the whole quality and timbre of the note ;

and it has a musical suggestion that is wanting in the croak of the

common English frog. (To my ear the voice of the Turtle Dove is

more like that of a frog than is that of any other British bird).

Without meaning to suggest that this call of the Water Rail is, like

that of the Corncrake, ventriloquistic, I have found it rather difficult

to locate ; indeed, when I first heard it, it seemed to me to be in

the air. It is prolonged for just about the same duration as the

“ bleating ” of the Snipe; and also there is just about the same

interval between its repetitions. It is deep, is full in volume, is

tremulous, rises slightly in the scale, and also increases in loudness

from beginning to end. It is surprisingly powerful; we usually find

it difficult to hear birds distinctly here because of the noise of the

waterfalls, but this particular call is clear and distinct above every¬

thing, being as easily heard as the hooting of the Owl.


The call begins just as it is growing dusk and the spells last

sometimes for perhaps half-an hour. I have not heard it in the daylight

(nor as yet at night), so I have never been able to see the bird when

calling. Saunders’ ‘ Manual of British Birds,’ 2nd Ed., p. 516, says :

“During the breeding season Water Rails are very noisy, uttering a

loud Cro-o-o-an, called ‘ sharming ’ in Norfolk.” But this would seem

to refer not to this, but to another—the well-known “ explosive ” call of

the Water Rail. The term “ explosive ” comes from Stevenson, who in

turn took it from Lubbock’s ‘ Fauna,’ which he quotes. Stevenson

says ‘ Birds of Norfolk,’ II, p. 407 : “ On the 17th of July, 1869,

between twelve and one in the morning, I listened to the cry of this

bird at intervals for more than an hour on Surlingham Broad, and

with a thick, white fog enveloping the reed-beds and marshes ; the

sound struck me as far more resonant or explosive than I had ever

noticed before.” But no writer whose works I have here, excepting

Prof. Newton, gives any hint that he is referring to the particular



